CHAPTER XVI.

CONCERNING LIBERALITY AND MEANNESS

Commencing then with the first of the above-named characteristics, I

say that it would be well to be reputed liberal. Nevertheless,

liberality exercised in a way that does not bring you the reputation

for it, injures you; for if one exercises it honestly and as it should

be exercised, it may not become known, and you will not avoid the

reproach of its opposite. Therefore, any one wishing to maintain among

men the name of liberal is obliged to avoid no attribute of

magnificence; so that a prince thus inclined will consume in such acts

all his property, and will be compelled in the end, if he wish to

maintain the name of liberal, to unduly weigh down his people, and tax

them, and do everything he can to get money. This will soon make him

odious to his subjects, and becoming poor he will be little valued by

any one; thus, with his liberality, having offended many and rewarded

few, he is affected by the very first trouble and imperilled by

whatever may be the first danger; recognizing this himself, and wishing

to draw back from it, he runs at once into the reproach of being

miserly.

Therefore, a prince, not being able to exercise this virtue of

liberality in such a way that it is recognized, except to his cost, if

he is wise he ought not to fear the reputation of being mean, for in

time he will come to be more considered than if liberal, seeing that

with his economy his revenues are enough, that he can defend himself

against all attacks, and is able to engage in enterprises without

burdening his people; thus it comes to pass that he exercises

liberality towards all from whom he does not take, who are numberless,

and meanness towards those to whom he does not give, who are few.

We have not seen great things done in our time except by those who have

been considered mean; the rest have failed. Pope Julius the Second was

assisted in reaching the papacy by a reputation for liberality, yet he

did not strive afterwards to keep it up, when he made war on the King

of France; and he made many wars without imposing any extraordinary tax

on his subjects, for he supplied his additional expenses out of his

long thriftiness. The present King of Spain would not have undertaken

or conquered in so many enterprises if he had been reputed liberal. A

prince, therefore, provided that he has not to rob his subjects, that

he can defend himself, that he does not become poor and abject, that he

is not forced to become rapacious, ought to hold of little account a

reputation for being mean, for it is one of those vices which will

enable him to govern.

And if any one should say: Caesar obtained empire by liberality, and

many others have reached the highest positions by having been liberal,

and by being considered so, I answer: Either you are a prince in fact,

or in a way to become one. In the first case this liberality is

dangerous, in the second it is very necessary to be considered liberal;

and Caesar was one of those who wished to become pre-eminent in Rome;

but if he had survived after becoming so, and had not moderated his

expenses, he would have destroyed his government. And if any one should

reply: Many have been princes, and have done great things with armies,

who have been considered very liberal, I reply: Either a prince spends

that which is his own or his subjects’ or else that of others. In the

first case he ought to be sparing, in the second he ought not to

neglect any opportunity for liberality. And to the prince who goes

forth with his army, supporting it by pillage, sack, and extortion,

handling that which belongs to others, this liberality is necessary,

otherwise he would not be followed by soldiers. And of that which is

neither yours nor your subjects’ you can be a ready giver, as were

Cyrus, Caesar, and Alexander; because it does not take away your

reputation if you squander that of others, but adds to it; it is only

squandering your own that injures you.

And there is nothing wastes so rapidly as liberality, for even whilst

you exercise it you lose the power to do so, and so become either poor

or despised, or else, in avoiding poverty, rapacious and hated. And a

prince should guard himself, above all things, against being despised

and hated; and liberality leads you to both. Therefore it is wiser to

have a reputation for meanness which brings reproach without hatred,

than to be compelled through seeking a reputation for liberality to

incur a name for rapacity which begets reproach with hatred.